City Council declares election results official

The Jamestown City Council certified the results of the June 2 special election as the Canvassing Board for the election.
Voters approved a 1 percent sales tax that will fund construction of the first phase of the $28.6 million Two Rivers Activity Center to be built near Jamestown High School.
The board accepted four votes that were questioned during the tallying of the vote on election night.
One was an absentee vote with some differences between the signature on the absentee ballot application and the return envelope.
Another was missing a signature on the long-term resident certificate and two were missing initials by election officials on the ballot.
City Administrator Jeff Fuchs said the Canvassing Board tried to honor the voter’s intent in each case.
The additional four ballots added two yes votes and two no votes to the unofficial tallies from election night.
The final results reported were 1,773 yes votes to 1,180 no votes.
Fuchs said the City Council could hold its first reading of the ordinance implementing the sales tax at the City Council’s July 6 meeting. The second reading of the ordinance could occur at the Aug. 3 meeting.
From there, the ordinance is submitted to the North Dakota State Tax Department with implementation of the tax possible on Jan. 1, 2016.
Sun reporter Keith Norman can be reached at 701-952-8452 or by email at knorman @jamestownsun.com